› added 6 years ago

106

TIL that western mathematicians did not accept negative numbers for over 18 centuries. They treated them as absurd solutions to equations.

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E16Z7 TIL Apollo 12 was struck by lightning during launch and was on the verge of being aborted before a single Flight Controller realised that flipping a little known switch would restore enough systems to save the mission.
mJBx TIL Speedo invented a swimsuit so advanced, it broke 23 of 25 world records and was banned as being classed as “technological doping”.
4Ppo TIL that the Roman Empire was once sold at auction by the Praetorian Guard, who had just killed the previous emperor
7rgm7 TIL Dark roast coffee has less caffeine than light roast coffee. The coffee beans lose more caffeine the more they are roasted.
D1lPv TIL about a French diplomat, Bernard Boursicot, who worked at the French embassy as an accountant in Beijing in 1964 who had a 20-year affair with a Chinese actress, who turned out to be both a spy and a man in drag. The diplomat claims not to have known that his lover was actually a man.